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Monday, 7 September 2015

She sells sea shells

Hi all, I've been working away on several projects in the studio. One of my most recent projects is a series of panels in the Tiffany style. These panels incorporate antique glass and limpet shells I gathered on the beaches of Scotland, mostly on the west coast and Inner Hebrides islands.

This is the first one I made, it is not exactly square and is more of a proof of concept than anything:

Scottish sea shells proof of concept panel by Maria McMahon

I had a talk with The Scotsman about how I could more easily get the panel straight and square, so he built me an adjustable wooden jig (how I do love that man).

The jig allows me to lay out the coppered shells and glass pieces in a perfectly squared space and solder them in place, knowing that the angles were all straight. The second piece came out a lot more exact (although unfortunately the photo did not!):

Scottish sea shells panel by Maria McMahon

Here are the two pieces together, for comparison:

Scottish sea shell panels by Maria McMahon

I'll be making lots more of these for the Christmas show, I hope someone wants to buy one (or several.) Wish me luck!

Still plugging away on the Metropolis piece, I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel with that one. I think it's a few more firings away, then I just have to lead it up and figure out how I want to display it. Maybe I'll get The Scotsman to build a light box for it?
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